Red Badge of Courage When I first started reading this book I thought why does every one rave about how well it is written so I totally dove into reading it and found many forms of symbolism. The Symbolism in a Soldier The story The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane, was written to reflect the harsh Civil War realities. Cranes style of writing to portray these realities included the technique of symbolism. In this technique, symbols are hidden within certain objects throughout the story to help express the theme. There were many symbols in the story, but the soldiers symbolized a few of the important ones. Henry, Jim Conklin, and Wilson all sy